Information For

Governance

The ARC Centre of Excellence in Cognition and its Disorders is a partnership of the participating institutions under a formal Centre agreement, with Macquarie University as the administering institution.

As presented in the CCD Governance chart above, the Centre is comprised of the following:

Advisory Board

The advisory board will consist of up to 10 members, including an eminent Chair. It will meet face-to-face annually and via teleconference as needed. The Board will create linkages with relevant associations and practitioners, and will provide direction on public relations strategies, communications, and translation of knowledge into outcomes. Membership will consist of representatives of the Peak Bodies associated with each of the disorders we are studying, with each organisation being asked to nominate one representative (Speech Pathology Australia, Autism Australia, Schizophrenia Fellowship of NSW, Learning Difficulties Australia and Alzheimer's Australia). The remaining members will be influential people from the health, business, and government sectors. Members will rotate off the Board every three years.

The current Advisory Board Members are listed on the Advisory Board webpage.

Scientific Committee

This Committee will advise the Centre Director and the program directors on the strategic direction of current and future scientific programs to ensure that these are of the highest quality. It will be comprised of eminent researchers from the US, the UK and elsewhere, and will meet once a year at an annual conference, where PhD students, postdocs, and researchers report on the yearly yield. It will evaluate the Centre's progress by reviewing annual reports and offering advice on areas for improvement and new research directions.

Research Management Committee

This is the primary executive committee and will consist of the Centre Director, the Program Leaders and the Chief Operating Officer. The Centre Director is responsible for scientific leadership and strategic direction of the CCD. The Research Management Committee will coordinate and advise on all aspects of the research programs, and will meet as often as needed face-to-face and via teleconference.

Administrative Personnel

The Chief Operating Officer is the senior administrative officer of the Centre and is responsible for managing the day-to-day activities of the centre and for operations management. Administrative support is provided by the Finance, HDR/HR, Research, Outreach and Systems administrators, in conjunction with the Executive Assistant to the Centre Director and Chief Operating Officer.

The two Recruitment and Assessment Coordinators will recruit participants for projects by drawing on numerous existing resources. One will be based at the Macquarie node and will utilise the Neuronauts Brain Science Club, the Cognitive Science Register, and the Prosopagnosia Register. The second will be based at UWA and will draw on referrals from the Prosopagnosia Register (this is a national register), the UWA Child Development Clinic, and Language Development Centres in Perth. The coordinators will also be responsible for developing assessment protocols for individual projects, so that suitable participants can be tested in a uniform way across the nodes, maximizing participants in each study. Reports of assessments and recommendations for treatment will be provided to end-users such as teachers and health professionals.